Present Problem
What’s the origin associated with fish symbol that is christian?
The Greek term for seafood is “ichthys.” As soon as the century that is first Christians made an acrostic with this term: Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter, i.e. Jesus Christ, Son of Jesus, Savior. The fish has a great amount of other overtones that are theological well, for Christ fed the 5,000 with 2 fishes and 5 loaves (meals recapitulated in Christian love-feasts) and called his disciples “fishers of males.” Liquid baptism, practiced by immersion when you look at the early church, created a parallel between seafood and converts. Second-century theologian Tertullian put it that way: “we, small fishes, following the image of our Ichthys, Jesus Christ, are created within the water.”
Greeks, Romans, and lots of other pagans used the seafood sign before Christians. Thus the seafood, unlike, state, the cross, attracted suspicion that is little rendering it an amazing key expression for persecuted believers. Whenever threatened by Romans into the very first hundreds of years after Christ, Christians utilized the seafood mark conference places and tombs, or even to differentiate buddies from foes. Relating to one story that is ancient whenever a Christian came across a complete complete stranger in the road, the Christian often drew one arc associated with easy seafood outline when you look at the dust. In the event that complete stranger received one other arc, both believers knew they certainly were in good business. Present business-card and bumper-sticker uses for the seafood hearken back into this training.
Experts associated with seafood expression either decry it as tacky tokenism or mention that the seafood nevertheless carries baggage through the times whenever pagans tried it to express fertility or, more especially, the feminine organs that are reproductive. (more…)